The Invisible Government Part 24

Ogden Reid (former Chairman of the Board, _New York Herald Tribune_)

Whitelaw Reid (former Editor-in-Chief, _New York Herald Tribune_)

James B. Reston (Editorial writer, _New York Times_)

Elmo Roper (public opinion a.n.a.lyst, Roper Poll)

David Sarnoff (Chairman of the Board, Radio Corporation of America--NBC, RCA Victor, etc.)

Harry Scherman (founder and Chairman of the Board, Book-of-the-Month Club)

William L. Shirer (author, news commentator)

Paul C. Smith (President and Editor-in-Chief, Crowell-Collier Publishing Company)

Leland Stone (head of News Reporting for Radio Free Europe, _Chicago Daily News_ foreign correspondent)

Robert Kenneth Straus (former research director for F. D.

Roosevelt's Council of Economic Advisers; owner and publisher of the San Fernando, California, _Sun_; largest stockholder and member of Board of Orange Coast Publishing Company, which publishes the _Daily Globe-Herald_ of Costa Mesa, the _Pilot_ and other small newspapers in California; member of group which owns and publishes _American Heritage_ and _Horizon_ magazines; Treasurer and Director of Industrial Publishing Company of Cleveland, which publishes trade magazines)

Arthur Hayes Sulzberger (Chairman of the Board, _New York Times_)

C. L. Sulzberger (Editorial writer, _New York Times_)

I do not mean to imply that all of these people are controlled by the Council on Foreign Relations, or that they uniformly support the total program of international socialism which the Council wants. The Council does not _own_ its members: it merely has varying degrees of influence on each.

For example, former President Herbert Hoover, a member of the Council, has fought eloquently against many basic policies which the Council supports. Spruille Braden is another.

Mr. Braden formerly held several important amba.s.sadorial posts and at one time was a.s.sistant Secretary of State in charge of American Republic Affairs. In recent years, Mr. Braden has given leadership to many patriotic organizations and efforts, such as For America and The John Birch Society; and, in testimony before various committees of Congress, he has given much valuable information about communist influences in the State Department.

Mr. Braden joined the Council on Foreign Relations in the late 1920's or early 30's, when membership in the Council was a fashionable badge of respectability, helpful to the careers of young men in the foreign service, in the same way that membership in expensive country clubs and similar organizations is considered helpful to the careers of young business executives.

Men who know Braden well say that he stayed in the Council after he came to realize its responsibility for the policies of disaster which our nation has followed in the postwar era--hoping to exert some pro-American influence inside the Council.

It apparently was a frustrated hope. There is a story in well-informed New York circles about the last time the Council on Foreign Relations ever called on Spruille Braden to partic.i.p.ate in an important activity.

Braden was asked to preside over a Council on Foreign Relations meeting when the featured speaker was Herbert Matthews (member of the _New York Times_ editorial board) whose support of communist Castro in Cuba is notorious. It is said that the anti-communist viewpoint which Braden tried to inject into this meeting will rather well guarantee against his ever being asked to officiate at another CFR affair.

Generally, however, the degree of influence which the CFR exerts upon its own members is very high indeed.

Apart from an occasional article or editorial which criticizes some aspect of, or some leader in, the socialist revolution in America; and despite much rhetoric in praise of "free enterprise" and "the American way," such publications as _Time_, _Life_, _Fortune_, _New York Times_, _New York Post_, _Louisville Courier-Journal_, _Washington Post and Times Herald_, _Sat.u.r.day Review of Literature_, the _Denver Post_, _The Christian Science Monitor_ and _Look_ (I name only those, in the list above, which I, personally, have read a great deal.) have not one time in the past 15 years spoken editorially against any fundamentally important aspect of the over-all governmental policies which are dragging this nation into socialism and world government--at least, not to my knowledge.

On the contrary, these publications heartily support those policies, criticizing them, if at all, only about some detail--or for being too timid, small and slow!

In contrast, David Lawrence, of _U. S. News & World Report_, publishes fine, objective news-reporting, often featuring articles which factually expose the costly fallacies of governmental policy. This is especially true of _U. S. News & World Report_ in connection with domestic issues.

On matters of foreign policy, David Lawrence often goes down the line for the internationalist policy--being convinced (as all internationalists seem to be) that this is the only policy possible for America in the "shrunken world" of the twentieth century.

An intelligent man like David Lawrence--who must see the endless and unbroken chain of disasters which the internationalist foreign policy has brought to America; and who is thoroughly familiar with the proven record of marvelous success which our traditional policy of benign neutrality and no-permanent-involvement enjoyed: how can he still feel that we are nonetheless inescapably bound to follow the policy of disaster? I wish I knew.

Chapter 11

INTERLOCKING UNTOUCHABLES

Members of Congress are not unaware of the far-reaching power of the tax-exempt private organization--the CFR; but the power of the Council is somewhat indicated by the fact that no committee of Congress has yet been powerful enough to investigate it or the foundations with which it has interlocking connections and from which it receives its support.

On August 1, 1951, Congressman E. E. c.o.x (Democrat, Georgia) introduced a resolution in the House asking for a Committee to conduct a thorough investigation of tax-exempt foundations. Congressman c.o.x said that some of the great foundations,

"had operated in the field of social reform and international relations (and) many have brought down on themselves harsh and just condemnation."

He named the Rockefeller Foundation,

"whose funds have been used to finance individuals and organizations whose business it has been to get communism into the private and public schools of the country, to talk down America and to play up Russia."

He cited the Guggenheim Foundation, whose money,

"was used to spread radicalism throughout the country to an extent not excelled by any other foundation."

He listed the Carnegie Corporation, The Rosenwald Fund, and other foundations, saying:

"There are disquieting evidences that at least a few of the foundations have permitted themselves to be infiltrated by men and women who are disloyal to our American way of life. They should be investigated and exposed to the pitiless light of publicity, and appropriate legislation should be framed to correct the present situation."

Congressman c.o.x's resolution, proposing an investigation of foundations, died in Committee.

On March 10, 1952, c.o.x introduced the same resolution again. Because he had mentioned foundation support for Langston Hughes, a Negro communist, Congressman c.o.x was accused of racial prejudice. Because he had criticized the Rosenwald Fund for making grants to known communists, he was called anti-semitic. But the c.o.x resolution was adopted in 1952; and the c.o.x committee to investigate tax-exempt foundations was set up.

Congressman c.o.x died before the end of the year; and the final report of his committee (filed January 1, 1953) was a pathetic whitewash of the whole subject.

A Republican-controlled Congress (the 83rd) came into existence in January, 1953.

On April 23, 1953, the late Congressman Carroll Reece, (Republican, Tennessee) introduced a resolution proposing a committee to carry on the "unfinished business" of the defunct c.o.x Committee. The new committee to investigate tax-exempt foundations (popularly known as the Reece Committee) was approved by Congress on July 27, 1953. It went out of existence on January 3, 1955, having proven, mainly, that the mammoth tax-exempt foundations have such power in the White House, in Congress, and in the press that they are quite beyond the reach of a mere committee of the Congress of the United States.

If you want to read this whole incredible (and rather terrifying) story, I suggest _Foundations_, a book written by Rene A. Wormser who was general counsel to the Reece Committee. His book was published in 1958 by The Devin-Adair Company.

In the final report on Tax-Exempt Foundations, which the late Congressman Reece made for his ill-fated Special Committee (Report published December 16, 1954, by the Government Printing Office), Mr.

Reece said:

"Miss Casey's report (Hearings pp. 877, et seq.) shows clearly the interlock between _The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace_, and some of its a.s.sociated organizations, such as the _Council on Foreign Relations_ and other foundations, with the State Department. Indeed, these foundations and organizations would not dream of denying this interlock. They proudly note it in reports.

They have undertaken vital research projects for the Department; virtually created minor departments or groups within the Department for it; supplied advisors and executives from their ranks; fed a constant stream of personnel into the State Department trained by themselves or under programs which they have financed; and have had much to do with the formulation of foreign policy both in principle and detail.